Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child.

Cocktail parties ... are usually not parties at all but mass ceremonials designed to clear up at one great stroke a wealth of obligations.

What in me is pure conviction is simple prejudice in you.

Happiness puts on as many shapes as discontent, and there is nothing odder than the satisfaction of one's neighbor.

It's hard / Keeping up with the avant-garde.

Gardening has compensations out of all proportion to its goals. It is creation in the pure sense.

Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy